Ren Is Also Ryuji N The Rest Of The Group's Leader Btw :] - Tumblr Posts
@buddymuses // for Yui!
the city thrummed with a heightened life.
a living, concrete thing, of pavement and movement and a kind of energy that Ryuji knows, deep down, that he must've embodied somewhere along growing up and into it. he knows it in the way his footfalls almost align with something in the solid ground, or maybe that's just a byproduct of living here the way he has, or the way that the floor of Palaces always feel warped — unreal in a way he can't describe, and often tries not to — so the ground he grew up walking became something 'other', tied into the something living that Palaces were.
he still knew the city better, a roadmap in his mind to every vein in the block & how he might've been chased down half of them, even if he didn't know most of the people that gave it that second heartbeat inside. maybe that's part of it, when finding a back exit from the school, easy to slip off when everyone knew not to bother with boys like him, that he'd stumble into — almost knock over — a kid he didn't recognize, half hidden in the space behind the school.
“Hey-! what the hell's your deal—?!” is the initial response that leaves him, mouth always faster than his mind, but the scene hits him second — the girl no older than 11 at best, 9 at worst, a stressed thing in the shadow of the building as if it was intentioned, a mother holding a panicked child under the crook of its arm in the high daylight of noon, neglectful in the preventing of the fear but oh so willing to shelter in the overwhelming of it
it'd take Ryuji time to realize that, in part, that might've been true. his good intentions genuine on the face of the cool metal fencing. you can see him backpedal on expression alone, how obvious he was, how blatant.
he felt, suddenly, like quite the jerk ; or maybe just the fool. maybe that's just what he got for being so fast on the draw.
“I mean—” mind scrambling for something, tone less harsh than before when the initial was one prepared for someone different, someone worse. maybe she got lost? she doesn't look like she's from around here, not adorned in the uniform he's so accustomed to, and in turn accustomed to breaking: why else—? “uh, sorry, didn't mean to snap, you.. alright?”
he was never really good at knowing just what to say. where was Ren when you really needed him…?